Classic Authors on What’s Important to Remember this Season

“No, you do not have thousands of years to live. Urgency is on you. While you live, while you can, become good.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks.” —Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

“Live all you can; it’s a mistake not to. It doesn’t so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven’t had that what have you had?” — Henry James, The Ambassadors

“Reflect upon your present blessings—of which every man has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” –Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz

“The growing good of the world is partly dependent on un-historic acts.” — George Eliot, Middlemarch

The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” — Ida B. Wells, The Light of Truth

“Let us be good, let us be young, let us be sincere! Evil is nothing but vanity; let us take pride in the good, and above all, let us not despair.” — Alexandre Dumas fils, The Lady of the Camellias

“We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won’t do harm…and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine.” — E. M. Forster, A Room with a View

“No generous mind delights to oppress the weak, but rather to cherish and protect.” – Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall